By the time Nathan Fletcher ended his campaign for the California Senate, saying he was entering treatment for alcohol abuse and post-traumatic stress, he had amassed almost $1 million in donations. Campaign disclosures show the former county supervisor returned thousands of dollars to donors after he announced in March 2023 that he was no longer a Senate candidate and after he was accused in a lawsuit of sexual assault and harassment. Those same reports also show he paid more than $500,000 in campaign funds to the law firm now defending him from his accuser, Grecia Figueroa, a former television journalist and Metropolitan Transit System public relations specialist. Now the California Fair Political Practices Commission has confirmed that it is investigating Fletcher, his Senate campaign and his treasurer for possible violations related to campaign spending. “This letter is to notify you that the Enforcement Division of the Fair Political Practices Commission will investigate the allegations(s), under the jurisdiction of the commission, of the sworn complaint you submitted in the above-referenced matter,” the regulatory agency wrote in a Sept. 18 notice made public on Tuesday. No determination has yet been made on the validity of the complaint, which accuses Fletcher of using more than $500,000 of Senate campaign funds to pay legal expenses incurred as a result of his service as an elected county supervisor. San Francisco attorney Jim Sutton, who was informed of the FPPC investigation on Fletcher’s behalf, said there is nothing untoward about his client’s use of donations to the Senate campaign. “The use of campaign funds to fight this lawsuit is clearly appropriate and allowed by state law, as campaign funds can be used for any expenditure which is reasonably related to a political purpose,” he said in a telephone interview. “It specifically can be used for lawsuits which arise from his status as a candidate,” said Sutton, who noted that Figueroa referenced Fletcher’s Senate race in several of her court filings. Campaign treasurer Nancy Haley of Haley & Co. also is named as a subject of the civil investigation. Haley did not respond immediately to a request for comment on the probe. The investigation is not a criminal probe. The Fair Political Practices Commission, or FPPC, is the regulatory agency that enforces state and local campaign laws. It can impose fines and penalties, and it also has authority to refer cases to prosecutors. The commission released a trove of documents related to the investigation, including the complaint, campaign filings, the initial lawsuit at issue and the notice of investigation. Records show the FPPC complaint was filed earlier this month by activists Kenneth Moser and Richard Shigley. The two men have a history of reporting complaints and filing lawsuits against political candidates and campaigns. According to the complaint Moser and Shigley submitted Sept. 4, Fletcher improperly used his Senate campaign funds to pay just over $523,000 in attorney fees to Fisher & Phillips LLP, the San Diego law firm defending him. Of that total, $323,000 was paid in the second half of last year; the campaign reported an additional $200,000 payment to the firm during the first half of this year. The payments were reported on campaign disclosures as professional fees, meaning they were accrued as for professional services such as legal or accounting work on behalf of the campaign. Fletcher launched his Senate campaign on Feb. 6, 2023, the same day Figueroa was fired from her transit agency position. He ended his campaign in late March of that year, days before Figueroa named him and Metropolitan Transit System in her lawsuit. “In defending himself from these allegations, he has improperly used his Senate campaign account funds to defend himself from activities involving his activities as an elected county supervisor,” the complaint says. The allegations reported to the FPPC also accuse Fletcher of reporting campaign expenditures incorrectly. “Nathan Fletcher has listed legal expenditures falsely as ‘PRO’ or Professional Services, when they should have been detailed as ‘LEG’ for Legal Defense,” the complaint says. Fletcher, a Democrat, was elected to the then all-Republican county Board of Supervisors in 2018 and served on the transit agency board as part of that service. Before winning election to the county board, Fletcher had served two terms in the state Assembly as a Republican. The U.S. Marine Corps combat veteran subsequently lost a pair of campaigns for San Diego mayor. In response to Figueroa’s lawsuit, Fletcher admitted to what he said was an improper relationship with her but forcefully denied her accusations of sexual assault and harassment, including that he groped her under her blouse inside the transit agency headquarters. He insisted their secret meetings and communications were strictly consensual and that she was lying in order to collect a financial payout. Earlier this year, he filed a defamation lawsuit against her. Figueroa has said she never consented to the groping or harassment and was afraid to reject Fletcher’s advances because of his position as chair of the transit agency board. The lawsuit has devolved into a bitter legal dispute over evidence, subpoenas and various motions for sanctions. Just last week, attorneys for Fletcher, Figueroa and her friend were in court arguing over what text messages and other communications have been turned over or wrongly withheld. The judge in the case acknowledged the tension between the various participants in ordering them once again to meet and confer to resolve their differences ahead of a new hearing early next month. “I understand there’s been a long history of mistrust,” Judge Matthew C. Braner said during the court proceeding last week. The FPPC gave no indication when the investigation into the campaign-spending complaint may be completed.